Workload virtualization is a fundamental enabler for an Enterprise's transition to the Cloud. Enterprises may be any organizations which use computers, comprising corporations, small businesses, non-profit institutions, governmental bodies, etc., and Enterprise users may be individual users of Enterprise computers. Due to various benefits of the public Cloud (i.e., a non-local computing resource accessed via a network infrastructure), including reduced capital expenditures (CapEx), scalability, flexibility, elasticity, pay as you grow models, etc., various Enterprises owners, users, and/or administrators may wish to migrate applications and resources into the Cloud.
In the changing world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and resource virtualization, public/private Cloud integration is pivotal to Enterprise Information Technology (IT). However, security, compliance, transparency, management and control concerns, as well as the diverse nature of the associated policies, make Cloud adoption challenging.
Public Clouds may be shared, generic infrastructures built to support multiple users. The generic infrastructure of the Cloud may not meet the purpose-built Enterprise mandated business policies, transparency, security and control requirements. One challenge of an Enterprise IT organization is how to take advantage of the public Cloud while (a) maintaining the governance and control necessary to meet the Enterprise's business requirements, and (b) keeping the complexity of the new paradigm manageable.